Training and Development Strategy for Managers

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Training and Development Strategy for Managers Introduction Managers, like all other workers in the organisation, must be trained and their skills enhanced through an elaborate strategy. This will provide them with the opportunity to face challenges and steer the organisation to success as is anticipated. However, for managers to be sufficiently efficient in their working, they must be thoroughly trained and offered the opportunity to put their acquired skills into training. In designing the training and development strategy to be used on managers, especially those serving in the senior and middle level positions, the director in charge of the human resource development must take into consideration a number of critical aspects. This paper seeks to explore in detail all the necessary requirements that must be integrated in coming up with a comprehensive training strategy for these groups of managers.

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Strategically training strategic leaders The HR Development Director faces a critical demand of preparing managers in the senior and mid-level hierarchy within the organisation into extending the strategic reach of companies they currently head. To the HRDD, his basic objective is to ensure he successfully integrates leadership and learning in order to enable the organization grow and transform as per the long term goals. Thus, the HRDD must begin by identifying the reality of the organization at the present, and then determine what it requires to develop, as well as how it desires to change so as to compete effectively with others and achieve its end objectives. It is only by increasing individual competency, together with building organisational capacity that the gap between existing reality and the desired destination can be bridged (Bolt, 2000).

A good training and development strategy for managers must consider the steps required to develop leaders by giving due consideration to the necessary skills and behaviours that will eventually enable them fill the gap. Realising strategic direction actually relies heavily on the organisational capability. With increased capability, the organisation literally makes the first step in accentuating its goal but individual competency must also be present to sustain the journey. In other words, developing collective capabilities of senior and mid-level managers is very vital in increasing the ultimate capability of the organisation. The manager’s flexibility is one area that the HRDD should pay full attention to. In other words, managers need to be fully collaborative, and should also be in a position to leverage the subject matter expertise. They must be willing to continuously learn throughout their stay in the organisation.

But the organisation, on the other hand, should also put into place numerous necessities that will support these managers in developing these characteristics. What is needed is not a team

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of managers who can only act as strategy architects in determining the company course yet fail to continually work in order to implement some or all of the strategic directives. They need to be strategy translators who will lead in doing the work before the other members of the organisation. At no one time should managers lack leadership as they are the drivers of the organisation and therefore their incapacity could mean the entire organisation stalling and failing to succeed strategically. The HRDD should explore on ways of using training as a critical tool to impart the ability in senior and mid-level managers to create, interpret, and communicate strategy. A carefully crafted training and development strategy should be in a position to offer assistance to managers so that they can be good architects, translators, and accurate implementers of roles. To achieve this, the learning and training programmes must communicate the reasons and implications of the corporate strategy so that, in turn, the managers can fully be acquainted in their translation role to the employees (Phillips, 2003).

A majority of corporate strategies often fail to meet their intended objectives because in the first instance, the managers and other junior staff members are not aware of what the strategy implication is all about. Effective developmental activities are an effective means of distributing the information and presenting the necessary tools for implementation to be successfully undertaken. When training and development for managers is considered as a strategic objective through tying the whole training program to the business needs, better organisational results follow (Fadde, 2009).

Tying training and development to company strategy Training and development should be zeroed in on the business’s strategy. Aligning training and development with the overall business strategy often manages to produce better results as opposed to benchmark programs that target the same. For the HRDD, it is most

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important that while developing training and development programs, they integrate with the objectives of the organisation. Many professionals in the management training and development area view this entire practise as being comprised of puzzle pieces that need to be pieced together, but which poses too many difficulties in attempting to combine them. These pieces include developmental job rotations, talent management, 360°s as well as other assessments, action and experiential learning, coaching and mentoring, talent management, rewards and recognition, and succession planning. A good training and development program that targets managers should aim at bringing all these disjointed elements together. The ultimate objective of such a program should be to form a consummate whole with greater and realistic chances of delivering the anticipated results. The training program must be linked to the business strategy so as to increase real impact potential and extensive communication done to engender support (Rioux & Bernthal, 2006).

For effective company or organisational results, there must be consistency in the execution of strategies that target leadership development. There must be existing enterprise wide standards and practices which act as metrics for leadership. Additionally, cascade programs must also be available that allows for the flow of skill and development throughout the organisation. In turn, this will result in flexibility in the training and development programs so as to effectively match with the business needs. It will also lead to the customisation of developmental solutions for the functional units in order to ensure the full support and engagement of the senior managers.

The high potentials High-potential leader population is a critical leverage point in training and development of managers within the organisation. It is upon the HRDD to develop a systematic process for

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scrutinising the right candidates for development and training purposes in order that they may occupy key leadership positions. Even with a good development program that aims at enhancing high potential, an equally effective strategy for succession management and process. It is worth noting that candidates selected internally for leadership positions often fail to attain their objective when a succession management system lacks or is inadequate (Marginson, 2002).

HRDD can increase the odds of success by initiating a succession management process that offers visible support for senior management, as well as the line managers who are directly involved in recognizing and developing succession candidates. It is also crucial that a time frame is identified for offering guidelines to the planned development programmes, and flexibility adopted in order to enable the organisation change swiftly as per the changing strategic needs.

Information should also be shared with all the candidates (Fulmer & Conger, 2004).

Hold managers and the organisation responsible for results In the contemporary business world, companies have adopted an emerging practise where people are held accountable for purposes of a successful strategic leadership development effort.

Effectively, the HRDD should always consider using systematic evaluation or measurement method to so as to be in a position to determine their effort’s impact. Management development and training should therefore anchor development efforts within models of lean competency which are tied to employee reward systems. The competency models should also address skills, mindsets, and behaviours which are considered necessary for meeting strategic goals. A clear set of competencies which are also lean should remain the focus as the HRDD attempts to integrate these individual competencies with the succession plan.

One other vital thing that the HRDD must ensure to do is measuring the results of learning and development as prompt as possible. More work still needs to be done in ensuring

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that managers are held accountable for training and development results as strategy is shaped by these results (Schumaker, 2004).

Strategically Moving Forward For any organization to manage to move forward in the aspect of management development, critical analysis and care must be accorded to the following 4 major areas; firstly, a leadership strategy must be initiated. This should be followed by the creation of an integrated strategic leadership development structure. Thirdly, there needs to be an exploration of ways through which the strategic leadership development strategy can be implemented. Finally, an evaluation should be conducted to ascertain the level of success of the whole programme.

1. Developing leadership strategy The HRDD should consider what is known as “teachable moment” within the organisation while initiating the leadership strategy. It is visibly evident that educational experiences benefit managers more when conducted on a ‘just in time’ basis, more than when the same is conducted on a ‘just in case’ reasoning and basis. These are common moments that occur far too many times, particularly when individuals have been presented with the opportunity to change their previously held identities. In other words, it will be a common occurrence when an individual becomes a manager instead of being an individual contributor, where the new role and title will require him or her to hold overall operational responsibility.

Similarly, there appears to be that moment in organisations when it becomes very prudent to articulate a leadership strategy. In the business world, these opportunities have commonly been cited when mergers are happening, or when the organisation is facing a crisis of a significant size. For instance, the Pricewaterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand merger provided

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quite a significant teachable moment. The differing cultures had to be reconciled while the behaviours and mindset of leaders also needed to shift. Thus, PricewaterhouseCoopers used the event as a starting point in developing leadership and subsequently reassessing the firm’s overall strategy (Glance, Hogg & Huberman, 1997).

Tying training and development to corporate strategy to achieve alignment and leverage Having a direct link that connects both the corporate strategy and the leadership development strategy benefits the organisation a great deal together with its employees. It is also a very important concept for the development of a successful organisational leadership programme. Once organisations manage to realise this connection, they succeed in establishing a philosophy that is leadership-oriented, and which is capable of permeating all the organisational levels (Buck et al. 2003).

At PwC, there has been marked success in linking development activities with the company’s strategy of becoming the ‘distinctive firm’. The company has actually managed to design leadership development that reinforces its corporate strategy, thus achieving linkage and success. Another good example is PepsiCo’s strategy for developing leadership within its senior and middle level management ranks. The beverage manufacturer’s strategy is premised in the principle that marketplace success can only be achieved through strong leaders (Council, 2004).

Values and lean competency models form strategic leadership development foundations A less-complex leadership model that comprises of concise values statements is very critical in the overall development of leadership in organisations. What this means is that simple and straightforward competencies make it easy for the organisation to stay within focus of its overall corporate objective and goal. The HRDD must consider the fact that competencies need to be observable, and that managers should always be in a position to give feedback information

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on them at any given time. Equally important, these competencies should apply throughout the organisation and its different levels. If this is done, it will be much easier for the training and development programmes, and indeed the entire organisation achieving better performance (Dougherty, 2003).

1. Building an integrated structure for the development of strategic leadership Both the senior managers and those lower than them a rank or two in the organisational pecking order must forge a partnership with the numerous human resource systems in order to achieve training and thus advance their skill and knowledge. The HRDD needs to ensure that the CEO’s support is won for the successful development of leadership to be achieved. Conversely, the HRDD should take upon himself to reach out and join forces with the other colleagues occupying line positions, as well as in other HR specialities (Salob & Greenslade, 2005).

A case in point to underscore this analogy can be noted at Cisco’s HR function. The Worldwide Leadership Education team at the organisation works in close proximity with leaders in order to make it easy and possible to determine candidates for its management training and development programmes. The executives help in program design by making sure they meet all business needs and arrange them as per the strategic requirements. An established steering committee which is also cross-functional heads each of the Cisco programme with the objective of ensuring a linkage between the business and the program. The steering committee members, who also happen to be senior and mid-level managers, undertake the responsibility of driving the programmes design, as well as recruiting executives who are considered appropriate for the classrooms. The programme’s design phase brings together the different steering committees like once in a month.

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The reason why HRDDs must ensure the organisation’s leadership is fully committed to development and training is because this will help the organisation have a clear understanding of its relationship with the other existing systems of talent management. In other words, such practices as performance reviews, succession planning, and management development will easily be coordinated and executed. Their results will be positive, thus enabling the organisation to move forwards towards the attainment of its goals and objectives. In order to accelerate development of the high-potential programme, Cisco enlists the services of executive coaches. In this programme, an executive coach from outside Cisco is paired together with high potentials for a period of about one year. The external coach receives the special Cisco training just before being picked and assigned the assignment (Bernthal & Wellins, 2004).

The multiplier effect of strategic high potential plan in the organisation Good results for the organisation can actually be recorded through the involvement of small groups of people holding high potential, and who will resume their regular jobs to translate whatever they learnt to their colleagues. These “translators” of both strategy and learning hold a very vital position in the organisation. In real life practise, most corporate organisations are introducing initiatives that particularly focus on high potentials. The PricewaterhouseCoopers’ initiative resulted in a University experience for PwC’s 2000 US partners. At PepsiCo, a CEO programme sees about 40 high potentials go through the system each year. The Executive Leader Programme at Cisco dwells so much on the strategic intent of the company and also sees close to 40 top leaders benefit from it on a yearly basis (Kennedy, 2004).

3.Implementing development strategies that have been proven successful When training managers who are in turn set to develop and implement strategy, the most important question should be how to optimise their strategic capabilities. In other words, the

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HRDD should be planning on how to transform them into becoming thinkers and doers in order to be make them more strategic. This question is central to leadership development, and one that each all HRDD should give careful consideration to. Often, success depends on the ability of a leader to strategically envision the future and also act routinely so as to make the vision a reality.

It is important that the existing connection between behaviour and thought be identified and sustained such that harmony can actually be discovered. It might seem so logical that people behave the way they think but what is important for the HRDD to realise is the fact that this connection often works in the opposite direction from what could be desirable for the company.

The managers must work at changing their behaviour in order for them to be able to change their thinking at a later stage. It is difficult to ask a manager to decide on his or her way of thinking to act differently. They must be asked to begin by acting before the different thinking follows at a gradual pace. In this way, it will be easier to develop managers, particularly those who can think strategically, through helping them to act differently. Once they adopt a different way of acting, changes in belief will automatically follow. A set of practices must therefore be introduced so as to provide the guidance to enable the managers develop leadership ability that will also enable act strategically (Reynolds, 1999).

Use metaphor Metaphors can be used to enable managers learn and understand how to act strategically.

They can actually be relied upon to introduce change in a leader’s behaviour and mindset for enhanced success. The metaphoric experience transforms the manager from his or her familiar environment, and introduces new behaviours, perspectives, as well as skills which, although occur in unfamiliar context and conditions, they are compelling. The use of metaphor has already succeeded in transforming auditors into becoming medical doctors at a certain public

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accountancy. At a software company, marketers have been transformed into political consultants who now conduct polls (Hyland & Matlay, 1998).

The power of involving metaphor in training and developing managers is found in the capability to reach leaders with more impact at a level that is deeper. Metaphors actually put leaders in a position or context that makes them think differently. In other words, the managers actually change their perception and attitude about their work although they still continue to draw lessons that are important. The good thing about metaphoric experiences and escapades is that they are memorable. They tend to change the architecture or structure on problems that managers face, enabling them to be seen in a different way from the past. Thus, metaphoric experiences actually lead to new mindsets and behaviours in the manager’s consideration, a condition or phenomenon that would never have experienced if it were to be taught in a traditional classroom experience (Saslow, 2004).

One important caution to the HRDD, however, is that these experiences might fail to meet their intended objectives and, instead, remain to be mere fun diversions if careful designing with the ultimate business outcome or goal is not put into consideration. Equally important to consider is the fact that the manager’s learning needs also require some serious considerations.

After the managers have been put through the experience, it is prudent that the metaphor together with the experience are tied back or evaluated against the business’s learning outcomes. It is crucial that at this juncture, a more rigorous debrief with the intention of exploring implications, together with challenges and insights be undertaken (Weiss, 1983).

Play games It is more acceptable to play games at work today in the contemporary business world.

Many people regard it seriously as a developmental activity. Learning through “gaming” as is

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often referred to, particularly while using multi-player video games is a more realistic avenue for training and development. Many successful organisations now ratify gaming as part of their training programmes for their middle and senior level managers. Games, both individual and multi-player, achieve this objective by virtue of their allowing managers to have and enjoy a “practise field” that allows and encourages risk taking. The practise field is also open to numerous behaviours and strategies that the managers might consider important. Multi-player games, in particular, help to prepare managers so that they can function much better in the present day corporate world which appears to be gravitating more towards virtual teams. In this kind of new scenario which is resulting from the developments being observed in the technological front, the application and use of authority and influence is operating differently (Lin, 2007).

Through games, managers are offered with the opportunity to make quick decisions and operate at varied speed. This environment has a similarity to the fast-paced, highly competitive environment that most industries currently face or operate in. Additionally, games offer leaders with the chance to amass experience very quickly, in varied time frame so that they can accomplish whole projects and live the remainder of their life while in the game environment.

Thus, games provide managers with the chance to have a practical feel of what leadership is, and commit mistakes at a time or place where the repercussions are less difficult and also easier to emerge out of unscathed. To the HRDD, however, games will not necessarily work positively to develop leadership skills in all individual managers. It all depends with how an individual’s mentality is set, but gaming still remains the new frontier for training and development programmes that has the potential of making breakthroughs (Kirkpatrick, 2005).

Make it ongoing

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Learning and development should never be considered or looked at as an isolated set of events. HRDD should strive to introduce and incorporate a legacy where teaching and learning takes place in the entire organisation while being sustained by formal education programmes, as well as an informal learning programme that is mainly comprised of coaching, team-based learning, and also on-the-job teaching. Overly, organisations and indeed all level managers should look at training and development as very vital to their business strategy and competitive advantage (Rutherford, 1998).

The HRDD should ensure that wide ranges of training and development methods are employed, which have a clear focus on what the intended business outcomes are. In particular, the HRDD should aim at ensuring that those learning opportunities that are informal are developed highly in their firms. Deliberate routines, such as after-action review, or rounds often bring training and learning closer to work and should be considered. This is because they create an enabling opportunity for practise which, in turn is oriented to the individuals’ needs. They also employ such crucial techniques as shadowing, which are an investment in training and development of managers, as other members of staff (Suedfeld, 1992).

Change the classroom nature Classrooms still play a very important role as environments or set ups which are very essential in supplementing the training and development strategy of the firm. In particular, classroom environments come in handy if the training’s main objective is to make more strategic managers who are actively involved in thinking and acting. The traditional lecture should actually be changed to an involving, stretching, and challenging environment in order to develop managers faster and effectively, transforming them to become active learning participants. The

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danger of the HRDD failing to put this consideration into place is that it might only leave the managers as passive bystanders during the training sessions (Valentine & Fleischman, 2004).

Such involving learning activities like debates, group projects and activities, simulations, as well as other pedagogical techniques effectively expand the classroom’s impact and also enhance the challenge for true and realistic developmental impact together with learning. Among the real life scenarios that have already been utilised to achieve this objective include inviting fire fighters and ballerinas right into the classroom to help the managers experience and feel leadership in a way that is very different from what the general perspective was (Buysse & Verbeke, 2003). In some other instances, the use of naturally occurring problems together with the challenges that managers often face in their daily routine and work can be adopted as the classroom teaching material so as to build or formulate a context that is more appropriate. This will make the learning more realistic and also helpful to the managers because these are real time events and occurrences. As the training progresses, these methods stretch to an extent where participants are expected to think and also act differently. Although the above discussed learning techniques appear to be moving the idea of “safe” environment to oblivion, it should be noted that safety is not the ultimate goal here. Instead, what is important for the HRDD to put into mind is whether development has been achieved or not. Altering the traditional classroom nature such that different teaching methods are employed helps training and development to transform from being safe to becoming developmental (Bolt, 2004).

Make managers teachers It is a common occurrence in the present day to find senior executives or other middle level managers leading by teaching. It is evident that opportunities for synergies appear to exist between the present day senior managers and those in the middle level ranks who look forward

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to succeeding them once they retire. While leveraging training and development programmes so as to achieve their specific objectives, managers can also play a part in determining the development of future generation. In their service as teachers or role models, senior managers give direction, as well as insights into their intended strategy and eventually help in shaping the firm’s leadership strategy. They also help in identifying and determining training and development programmes which support the business’ strategic needs of the present and the future (Ives & Olson, 1981).

At PepsiCo, for instance, the senior managers talk of the magic that happens when managers participate in the developing of other managers. It is worth noting that people will often learn well when they emulate someone they really look up to. Thus, at PepsiCo, the middle level managers want to acquire knowledge from their own senior managers. These managers are well expected in the entire world and have proven track record. The senior managers are asked to distribute or share their personal knowledge and personal perspectives in order to build the confidence of the middle level managers while also offering support for their growth. It is vital for senior managers to participate in these sessions because they also get greater teamwork the other lower level managers. They use the opportunity to know the young managers and also help in nurturing their loyalty, building their motivation, and helping them to improve on their productivity, as well as helping them to align their leadership skills around key strategic initiatives and vision. The managers at the beverage company are encouraged to consider learning as a vital “arrow of their quiver” so as to be able to lead a strategic change. Thus, PepsiCo has managed to build a perception and culture where both management development and learning are not merely endorsements but something to live (Bridgman, 2001).

4.Evaluating success

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To be able to develop managers is an indicator of growing executive success. Best-in class learning organisations consider personnel development to be a very vital practise and activity. They look at financial results as “lagging indicator” of the organisation’s success at the one hand while development of people is looked at as “leading indicator”. Consequently, the aspect and practise of developing people is fast turning to be an important bit of the evaluation of the senior manager’s performance.

PepsiCo once again offers a good example of a practise that is worth being looked at. The company has allocated a third of incentive payments for training and developing people while the remainder has been left aside for results. The company also uses its semi-annual climate survey results, together with 360 degree feedback results as part of its performance review process (Saslow, 2004).

Corporate success is an indication of leadership development success PepsiCo does not measure the value that their leadership development programmes create. Instead, the senior manager attends all the high potential programmes and actually acts as the main facilitator. Thus, at every end of the programme, all the managers in attendance are requested to send an email to the senior manager detailing on what he or she thinks will be done differently because of the training received. After six months, the managers are required to send another email to the senior manager, reporting how well they think they have performed in attaining their commitment (Chillarege, Nordstrom & Williams, 2003).

At Cisco, both qualitative and quantitative measures are collected. Different metrics are available for measuring the performance of management development and training strategy. Some of the metrics that are commonly in use include customer

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satisfaction scores, class graduates percentage that successfully integrated whatever they learned during the training and had a good result, learners percentage who eventually stay with the company, among many other measures. The team considers the metrics that indicate the application of training to jobs, as well as changes recorded in the business results. A good example includes the percentage of the workers who are retained after undergoing the programme’s training, in comparison to the general population of the employees. For Cisco, the resultant figures have actually been favourable, standing at an average of 93 percent (Fulmer, 2005).

Conclusion No strategy or company can succeed in achieving its goals and objectives without having a strong leadership. It is this strong leadership that has proven to be the essence of an organisational performance that is worth being regarded as exceptional. Management training and development plays an important role in enabling a company to move from its current state or position to a future destination that is desirable. In closing the gap between the organisational future and its present, human resource development directors must be able to develop managers, both those in the senior and middle level ranks, who are flexible, willing to continuously train and develop, collaborative, as well as be willing and able to train, learn, and effectively adapt to the dynamic business environment. Additionally, managers must always work towards becoming strategic doers and thinkers. When management training and development is imperatively looked at as a crucial strategy, and then closely tied to the business strategy and overall business needs, excellent organisational results will be achieved. Many companies that seriously focus on results have adopted strategic leadership development programmes which encompass practices and

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measures which result in financial success. Great leaders often develop great strategies and work hard to deliver on the visions as the designers, implementers, as well as doers of the strategy.

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